One form of carrier for transporting large, round bales of hay or other crops includes a bale support for carrying a row of bales arranged end-to-end in the direction of travel of the carrier. The carrier may be equipped with a pick-up for picking up a bale as the carrier moves to a position beside the bale and lifting the bale onto the bale support. The bale is then transported along the support so the receiving position on the support is available for receiving the next bale from the pick-up.
An apparatus for this purpose must travel in a direction across the path of travel of the baler that made the bale, because the longitudinal, end-to-end dimension of the bale is generally across the path of the baler, while it is in line with the bale pick-up path. This creates problems in many instances. For example, in a ditch the bale carrier cannot travel up across the ditch to pick up and load the bales. On a slope it is often undesirable to travel across the slope for reasons of carrier stability.
In some bale carriers of the type in question, there are two side-by-side bale supports for carrying side-by-side rows of bales. This type of carrier conventionally requires two pick-ups, one on each side of the carrier for supplying bales to the respective supports.